My battle with the IRS is over!

Three and a half years after my mom died, and having endured interminable machinations with the incompetent, diffuse, and impenetrable bureaucracy of the IRS including threats of seizure of property, we finally have closed the lingering case of her final tax return. What started as an identity theft caper later became a comedy of errors only the IRS could generate, replete with phone conversations with various agents in various cities, some hostile and some modestly helpful, three page letters, several kilograms of documentation sent via fax and mail, dozens of computerized notices telling us how much we owed, and a barely English-speaking representative from the Taxpayer Advocate’s office who was not very well versed in the tax code, but who at least served as a pleasant albeit clueless buffer between me and the IRS bureaucracy. [Read more…]